Playground Accessibility Map

Find out how inclusive playgrounds near you are

In the summer of 2023, we launched The Play Investigation. 1,083 Scope campaigners visited 1,004 local playgrounds. They answered some questions to see how accessible and inclusive the playground was for disabled children.

We’ve used the results to create the Playground Accessibility Map.

View the Map in your app or browser.

Use the map to discover how playgrounds across the country stack up. Click the ‘view larger map’ icon in the top right hand corner to open the Map in a new window, or the Google Maps app. 

Or download the results (Excel 0.3GB). 

We know that every disabled child has different needs and preferences. Use the playground’s description to see whether it might be accessible and inclusive for your child.

How to use the Playground Accessibility Map

There are a few different ways of navigating the Map.

Navigate by pins

Use your mouse, touchscreen or keyboard to move around and zoom in on the Map. Click on a pin to view information about that playground. 

Navigate by location

You can enter any location, postcode or playground name into the search bar. You can find the search bar at the top of the Map on mobile devices. Or the top left-hand corner on desktop or laptop devices. 

Navigate by rating

Use the menu to view playgrounds by how inclusive they are. The menu is on the left-hand side of the Map on desktop and laptop devices. To find it on mobile devices, tap ‘view map legend’ at the bottom of the screen, or within a playground description. Tick or untick the checkbox next to each rating to view or hide the playgrounds on that level. 

Click the arrow next to ‘All items’ for each rating on the menu to look through the list of playgrounds campaigners investigated. And click on the name of the playground you want to view.

Map accessibility

You should be able to apply the accessibility settings you might already use on Google Maps to the Playground Accessibility Map. For example, you can enable dark mode for a different colour contrast. 

You can also download the results (Excel 0.3GB). The information in this file is the same as the information in the Map.

Understanding the Map

The pins on the Map are different colours. Each colour also has a unique shape. We’ve labelled the colour at the top of each pin description. 

Here's what those colours mean:

• Red with a square: The playground is unlikely to be accessible to most disabled children, and doesn’t have much inclusive equipment for them to play with. 
• Amber with a diamond: This playground is likely to be reasonably accessible to most disabled children, but there might not be much for them to enjoy.
• Green with a circle: This playground is likely to be accessible to disabled children, and has some inclusive equipment they can play with.
• Green with a star: This playground is likely to be accessible to disabled children, and there’s lots of inclusive equipment for them to enjoy.

When you click to view more information about a playground, you’ll see an emoji next to each answer Scope campaigners gave:
👍 This feature makes the playground more inclusive or accessible.
😐 This feature could be better.
👎 This feature makes the playground less inclusive or accessible.

Use our Play Investigation explainer to understand why some features are more inclusive and accessible than others.

Read more about how we rated each playground.

Finding the Map again

Once you’ve accessed the Map once, you should be able to find it under ‘saved’ on the Google Maps website and app. You can find this under ‘saved’, then ‘maps’ at the bottom of the screen on mobile devices. And under ‘menu’, then ‘saved’, then ‘maps’ on the left hand side of the screen on desktop and laptop devices.

Notes

If you notice any factual errors on the Playground Accessibility Map, please email campaigns@scope.org.uk to tell us what the error is. And what we should change it to. We're not adding any new playgrounds to the Map at this time.

Members of the public provided all the data on the map. Scope hasn’t verified this data. 

Scope has edited some comments made by campaigners. For example to remove irrelevant or personal details, and offensive material.

We know this Map may not be accessible to everyone. Please use the spreadsheet if it's more accessible to you, it contains all the same information. If any problems stop you getting the information or service you need from our site, please contact us and we will be happy to help you.